I felt it necessary to write a little about my school situation here in Chile. Let's see…. One of the main requirements I needed in a study abroad program was to take business classes because they are the oly ones I have left to take to graduate. After finding my program, there was really only one business class offered by ISA and the rest were in Spanish that you could take with Chilean students. After being reassured over and over again that I would have no trouble taking classes in Spanish I started the process of getting them approved by CU. Three months prior to leaving the states, and mounds of paperwork later, I sent in requests to the Arts and Science school at CU and then to the Leeds Business school. After two months of review, I had almost 20 classes that were approved for me to take abroad, so before leaving I felt pretty confident that everything would work out. Boy was I wrong.

When it came time to start registering, I was given a list of classes that were offered here at Adolfó Ibañez. After leafing through them I realized that none of the ones I had approved where on the list. Come to find out all of them had been changed and they were called different things, so I had no idea which ones would be approved and which wouldn't. When it came down to it there were only 3 classes that I had gotten approved and were still being offered, so if I wanted to graduate on time next semester, I didn't have a choice but to take those. When I was talking with Elena, our director; she told me that they never recommend students to take more than one or two classes with Chileans because it can be much more difficult. It was at about this time that I wanted to scream, because I was told that it wouldn't be a problem. But without having a choice I signed up for those three classes, and one class in English. After going to school the first week I realized that something was wrong with one of them, Liderazgo (Leadership) because no one showed up for the first two weeks of school. I went again to talk to Elena and it was then that she figured out that class was only 2-months long and started in May. Because of this it turned into only 1.48 credits at CU. So in week 2 of classes I was frantic to find another course that would fulfill my business electives. I found out that Leadership is a sequenced course and that they were offering it at the same time in May. I think I was in the middle of emailing 3 different advisors at CU, all working to help me figure out what classes to take. After pulling some strings I got Leadership 2 approved and enrolled in both 1 and 2. However… because they are both 1.48 credit classes, that only transfers to 2.96 credit hours, and I need 3 to graduate. With 0.04 of a credit lacking, I had to start a petition with CU to allow me to use some of the other excess credits I have to fulfill my deficit in that one subject. After many emails back-and-forth from the states I finally got all 4 classes (with Chileans) approved.

Next….. I am taking two management classes, one in the psychology department and one in the business management department. After 4 weeks of class, my business management teacher decided that she didn't want to teach the class anymore. No joke, so class was suspended for the week while they sought out a different teacher, in the middle of the semester! The following week when I showed up I realized that they had replaced my old teacher with my same teacher for my psychology management class. At first I thought that would be great, let's be honest, one less person to impress. But after he adjusted the syllabus (yet again, in the middle of the semester), to add in his teaching style I realized that it was exactly the same as my other class. So… I am literally taking the same class…………TWICE.

A few weeks later, when my parents were here, we all found out that our campus was going to change locations. As of then, all the ISA students lived within walking distance of the school and the new location is downtown, up on a hill, in the middle of nowhere. With only a week's notice, the school up and moved. We had no idea where the new campus was, or how to get there. Furthermore, there is no public transportation up the hill. Lucky me, I had a presentation the first Monday, so I had to make it there. With only a really s***ty map in hand of where special UAI busses would pick up, I left for my class 3 hours early because there was only one bus that went up the hill. AND…. To make matters worse, there were no scheduled buses to come down from the hill between 1 pm and 7 pm… so you were stuck up there. For the first three weeks all the students had to hitch-hike down the mountain………… In the end they changed the schedule so it works a little better now…

So Leadership 1 and 2 both started 3 weeks ago, the first week of May. Hypothetically these classes are consecutive, so I am not supposed to be taking them at the same time. Yet again, I have no choice. And the same lady teaches both classes…. AGAIN. Because of this all the cases that we have studied have been exactly the same… sooo I am taking the same class twice.

To do a little wrap up…. After trying so hard to get all those classes approved it turned into a total waste of time because they had changed upon my arrival. And I was assured that taking classes in Spanish was going to be fine, but when I got here I was told they don't recommend it. Then the campus changed, and out of my 4 classes I somehow managed to be only taking 2 because they are all repeated. I'm still fairly perplexed as to why they decided it would be a fabulous idea to change the campus in the middle of the semester… because it was an absolute nightmare and the whole school is still under construction. The structure of classes is very different from the states as well. Students walk in and out of classrooms as they please, and it doesn't really matter if they interrupt the teacher. Also, there is really no point in having a syllabus because everything changes; dates of tests, presentations…everything, which makes planning trips very easy. So far it has been going alright, it's pretty difficult to understand what is going on in all my classes and honestly most of the time I am completely clueless. I've met a lot of great people though that fill me in with the important details that I miss. It's been really beneficial for learning Spanish, so I can't really complain.

Let's see… what I have been up to the last week or so. Tuesdays we play soccer, which is hilarious because I am an absolute wreck. I've never played soccer in my life so I pretty much run around and never accomplish anything. But it's really fun and a lot of students come. Last Thursday we had Vegas Night at the casino in Viña. All the chicas got dolled up and headed out for some gambling. Being my first experience in a casino, I had absolutely no idea how to gamble so I decided that pushing random buttons would be my best option. I actually won a little money using this tactic, but my luck ran out and I ended up leaving with - USD$12. On Friday after class I left for Santiago for a Daddy Yankee concert. We stayed at La Casa Roja again, and had a fantastic night. The concert was incredible. The next day Austyn and I decided to stay in Santiago for the day and do some exploring and shopping. We ended spending a little too much money of course, but had a relaxing day strolling around the city. I've really grown to like Santiago.

On Monday morning at 7am we had to head back to Santiago to get our tourist visas for Brazil. Austyn and I are going to visit Georgia from June 3rd- 13th. SOOO EXCITED!!!! We ended up getting a pretty good deal on our airfare, total it cost us USD$280, but we also had to get our visa which cost USD$200. After doing some research and paperwork, we found the Brazilian consulate downtown Santiago and getting our visas went really smoothly. It was quite a different experience than getting my visa for Chile, which was the hardest thing ever. We are heading back tomorrow morning to pick them up, hopefully we don't have any problems.

This weekend was a blast, as usual. One of the students that lived with Nora 2 years ago, Ali, is here visiting. On Friday, Nora, Ali and I drank wine and made treats for Sophia's 6th birthday party that was this Sunday. Ali and I ended up going out to the same birthday party; the friends that she had when she studied here are some of the same people that are in my classes so it was really ironic we had the same plans for the night. We headed over to a friend's house for a previa (pre-game) and then went to Ovo, the disco in the casino.

On Saturday Patrick, Hallie, Austyn and I headed out to Cerro Alegre in Valpo for a little exploring. The hills of Valpo are so amazing and there is so much to see that it is kind of overwhelming. We ended up at a little café called Color Café and had some delicious coffee and tea. It was a well spent afternoon and we ended the night at Stingray, one of our favorite discos in Viña.

Today (Sunday), is Sophia's 6th birthday. The family rented a room in one of the neighboring apartments for the party and over 30 kiddos showed up. There was sooooo much food; I think I will be full for the next week and a half. They had a puppet show for the kids and it was really fun to spent time with the family. I am the luckiest girl ever… I love my host family.

Things coming up…… Wednesday Ali, Nora and I are all going to Journal for some quality chica time over some pisco sours. I might be going camping this weekend in Olmue, but I'm not sure about the details yet. And Austyn and I leave for Brazil in less than two weeks! I can't believe it! I am trying to plan one more trip in before I come home in July. I would love to go to Buenos Aires so somehow I have to figure out how to go… without totally failing all my classes